Aug 20, 2012

Homemade Pectin
Once I mastered jam making, inevitably, I began wondering how I could
make jam without the expense of buying commercial pectin. If you’ve got
access to apple trees, you can easily make pectin at home. Use the
pectin just as you would commercial liquid pectin. Four cups of homemade
pectin equals three ounces of commercial pectin.

Here are the steps for making homemade pectin:

Pick several pounds of apples. Thinly slice them, but don’t peel or
core them. You can use any type of apple, including slightly green ones
and those that are less-than-perfect. Young crab apples or Granny Smith
apples work well. This is a great way to use up apples that have
wormholes or other defects. Simply trim out the damaged areas.

Combine the apples in a large stockpot with water at a rate of one pint water for each one pound of apple slices.

Boil the apple slices and water for forty-five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Line a colander with cheesecloth. Pour the apple slices and juice through the colander into a large pot or bowl.

Return the apple slices to the stockpot and add more water, using
the same measurements as before. Simmer over medium heat for fifteen to
twenty minutes.

Remove the stockpot from the heat and let set for ten minutes.
Strain the apples and juice through cheesecloth as you did before into
the bowl or pot.

Gather the cheesecloth up tightly around the cooked apple slices to
make a bag. Squeeze your bag, collecting any remaining juice into the
bowl or pot. The combined juice is the homemade pectin. You should have
one quart of pectin for every one pound of apples you cooked.

Cover and refrigerate the pectin if you’re making jams right away.
For long-term storage, ladle the pectin into four-cup freezer
containers, leaving 1 inch of headspace. Cover and freeze for up to
three months. To use, thaw in the refrigerator overnight. You can also
can homemade pectin. Pour it into quart jars, add two-piece lids, and
process in a water bath canner for fifteen minutes.

Making Jam With Homemade Pectin
Homemade pectin looks and tastes a lot like unsweetened apple juice.
Unlike commercial pectins, it can stand up to longer cooking times, so
you have more flexibility. In fact, it’s so flexible that you can make
up your own recipes, based on individual preferences.
For example, a standard jam recipe usually goes something like this:

4 pounds fruit

2 cups sugar

1 quart liquid pectin

However, depending on the sweetness of the fruit, you can cut the
sugar down quite a bit. You may also find, depending on the ripeness and
amount of natural pectin in the fruit, that you need to add more pectin
to thicken the jam. I usually combine the fruit and pectin in a large
stockpot and boil it, stirring constantly for ten to fifteen minutes.
Take a small spoonful of jam and place it on a plate. If it mounds up
slightly on the plate, I know I’ve got the consistency I like. I can
then add the sugar and simmer five minutes more. If, on the other hand,
the jam spreads all over the plate in a runny mess, I simply add more
pectin and boil it again. If the jam tastes too tart, I just add a bit
more sugar.
The thickening ability of the pectin varies from year to year,
depending on the ripeness of the apples, as well as the varieties and
your preparation. Just plan on experimenting a bit with each batch until
your jam is perfect.

Quick Tip On Making Pectin
Here’s another idea for saving apple pieces for pectin: Whenever you
cut up an apple for fresh eating or cooking, save the peels and cores
and place them in a resealable plastic bag. Store the bag in the
freezer. When the bag is full, use the apple pieces to make liquid
pectin. Also, once you’ve cooked the apple slices down for pectin, run
the apple pulp through a food mill to make applesauce or apple butter.
What a great way to stretch your resources!